During the current COVID-19 crisis, the need to help struggling families is now. The Arnprior Rotary Club met with Dawn McAdam, Customer Service Representative of Ontario Works in Arnprior, to hand over $10,700 in Food, Gas and Supply Gift Cards to aid ongoing Disaster Victims as provided by a group of Rotary Clubs. This adds to the $3,050 funds donated by Rotary Clubs to help Flood victims last fall.

The obtaining of these funds was spearheaded by Gerhard Peters of the Arnprior Rotary Club and the money comes from all District 7040 Rotary Clubs including the Ottawa Valley Rotary Clubs in Renfrew County. Contributing District Clubs come from Eastern Ontario, Western Quebec and Northern New York State.

The total $10,700 of $50 Gift Cards included:

$5,700 from President's Choice for groceries and medications (through Shopper's Drug Mart)$2,500 from Canadian Tire (including Gas),$ 750 from ESSO Gas,$ 750 from Ultramar Gas. $1,000 from Home Hardware

These cards will be delivered to Andrea Patrick, Ontario Works Manager - Social Service Department, to disburse throughout Renfrew County to selected qualifying clients in need of this aid.

Arnprior Rotarians Dave Palmer and Mike Steeves show off some of Shoes collected by the Rotary Club of West Ottawa through support from Shoe Bank Canada and Dymon Storage. These new shoes were distributed to Arnprior & Renfrew Food Banks, and Arnprior's Opportunity Shop and Neighbourhood Link. http://shoebankcanada.org/

Canada's Veterans need our support. Arnprior Rotary recently made a $200 donation to the Vets Canada, presented by Arnprior Rotarian Dave Palmer, second from the right.

As service providers of Veterans Affairs Canada, Vets Canada (http://vetscanada.org) provides aid and comfort to Canadian veterans that are in-crisis, are at risk of becoming homeless, or are homeless.

Arnprior Rotarians Harry & Myra Kamen presented $300 from the Arnprior Club to the Eye Care Clinic out of Chiang Mai in Thailand. As well, they presented $700 to Grandma Cares, The goal of this program is to address the serious needs of children and youth who have been orphaned as a result of their parents dying from AIDS/HIV

The Kamens have been volunteers in Thailand for over almost 25 years and have excellent contacts through the local Rotary Clubs.

The Grandma Cares Program is ongoing and sustainable. It supplies the children with all the necessities they need to thrive and continue with their education. These necessities may be food, basic hygiene products, clothing and whatever else is needed. They also provide counseling to encourage school attendance as well as medical assistance. . http://grandmacares.weebly.com

Dr Peter Bell is an Australian Optometrist who provides free comprehensive eye examinations for school aged children. Thousands of school children have had their eyes examined. This program is ongoing with strong demand from many schools because eye care for children in Thailand is not the norm. Children who require corrective glasses are provided with new prescription glasses free. The program pays for these glasses and the logistics necessary for travel to the school, some at great distances from Chiang Mai. Dr Peter Bell is a member of the Rotary Club of Chiang Mai West.

Former DG Martha Weaver presented Dave Palmer with the very prestigious 5 Avenues of Service Award from RI.

She also presented to Leo Hughes a District Service award for his years of service in the community and Rotarian of the Year Pin to Mike Steeves for his contributions last year

Also making a presentation to the Club members was student Mackenzie Pauze who spoke about her experience at RYLA in Kingston in June 2019, where she developed leadership skills through role-playing exercises, proactive challenges, and her favourite, was an escape room. She highly recommended this opportunity to be given to other students. She is currently the President of the Arnprior District High School (ADHS) Interact Club, which is still a work in progress. She shared the recent success of the Club to undertake a Food Bank drive, which Gerry later commented on the amount of food items collected, and the opportunity for the students to see and learn the operation first hand.

Taking in many inspirational presentations from keynote speakers, making new friends and enjoying fabulous fellowship.

In attendance are Rotarian Diana Tomazin, Club President Gerhard Peters, Rotarian Rod & Vila Smith and Club Treasurer Jane Peters. Note the Hawaiian shirt that Gerhard is wearing to support the presentation for the 2020 International Convention in Honolulu!

The Arnprior Rotary Club has been involved with Dictionary 4 Life since 2016. This Fall Rotarians were at two elementary schools in Arnprior, namely McNab Braeside Public School and Walter Zadow Public School handing out dictionaries to the Grade 3 students.

The purpose of this project is to help children develop stronger self esteem, encourage familiarity with books, give "pride of ownership", and promote Rotary values to the child, family, and the community. The D4L has a space for the recipient's name on the inside cover in the Rotary information

Grade 3 students at McNab Braeside Public School, with their D4L books which they received from Rotarians David Grant and Vila Smith.

Students from Walter Zadow Public School:

Grade 3 students from Walter Zadow school. From left Rotarian Mike Steeves, Teacher. Mrs. Hewitt, Rotarian David Grant and on the right Rotarians Rod and Vila Smith.

Thank you very much to Karen DeLuca, Chief Librarian / CEO who made a very informative presentation to members of the Arnprior Rotary club on Monday. She talked about the Arnprior Public Library and the various services it offers such as lending library books * DVDs * CDs * magazines * audio books * Inter library loan service * children's programs and story times * large print materials * Free online databases including language learning, eBooks, Ancestry.ca, to name a few.

As a thank you gift to Karen the Rotary Club of Arnprior will vaccinate 50 children against Polio in honour of Karen for her enlightening talk on the Arnprior Library.

Today, on World Polio Day, Rotary and its Global Polio Eradication Initiative partners announced that wild poliovirus type 3 (WPV3) has been eradicated worldwide. WPV3 is only the third infectious human disease-causing pathogen to be eradicated in history, following smallpox and wild poliovirus type 2. This achievement means that two of the three wild polio strains have now been wiped out, an important marker of progress against the disease.

The announcement comes on the heels of recent news that Nigeria has gone three years without a case of wild poliovirus, which means that the entire African region could be certified wild poliovirus-free in sometime in 2020.

“The eradication of wild poliovirus type three is a critical step in Rotary’s fight to eradicate polio,” said Michael K. McGovern, Chair of Rotary’s International PolioPlus Committee. “Even as we’re addressing major challenges in Pakistan and Afghanistan, we continue to make historic progress that shows us that eradication is possible.

Today is World Polio Day—a time to reflect on our efforts, how far we’ve come, and the work that still needs to be done to fulfill our promise of a polio-free world. It’s important that we remain optimistic and harness the momentum of this good news as we tackle the remaining challenges in the global effort to end polio.”

This painting was drawn by Rotarian Jamaal Rolle from the Bahamas. The Artist created a painting showing a child receiving a drop of the polio vaccine for the End Polio Now message. The painting raised €8,000 (US$9,065.00) at the 2019 Rotary Convention in Hamburg, Germany that was held in early June.